The Soul of Rock and Roll [Box]

Performer: Roy Orbison
Artist: Emmylou Harris; Jerry Lee Lewis; Johnny Cash; Carl Perkins; K.D. Lang
Producer: Chet Atkins; Chips Moman; Clayton Ivey; David Briggs; George Massenberg; David Lynch; David Was; Don Was; Fred Foster; Gregg Geller; Jack Clement; Jeff Lynne; Jim Vienneau; Joe Melson; Michael Utley; Mike Curb; Nelson Wilbury; Norman Petty; Otis Wilbury; Pete Anderson; Rick Rubin; Roy Orbison; Sam Phillips; T-Bone Burnett; Terry Woodford; Barbara Orbison; Wesley Rose; Will Jennings; Bill Justis; Bono; Brian Ahern; Brian Eno; Roy Kelton Orbison Jr (Compilation)
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel: Roy Orbison (vocals, guitars, background vocals); Jeff Lynne (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, bass instrument, background vocals); Lefty Wilbury (vocals, guitar); Mark Goldenberg (vocals, electric guitar, mandolin, accordion); James Morrow (vocals, electric mandolin); Benmont Tench (vocals, strings, piano, Hammond b-3 organ); Don Was (vocals, Hammond b-3 organ); Joe Melson, k.d. lang (vocals, background vocals); Micahel J. Libow, Doug Fieger, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, The Roses, Barbara Orbison, Carl Perkins (vocals); Larry Byrom, Steve Gibson (guitar, guitars); Dean Parks (guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin); Otis Wilbury (guitar, keyboards, background vocals); Bruce Pearson, Johnny Wilson, Roland Janes, Alan James, Bono , Brent Rowan (guitar); Lenny LeBlanc (guitars, bass instrument); Lucky Wilbury, C.T. Wilbury Jr., J.D. Souther, Nelson Wilbury, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen (guitars, background vocals); John Christopher, Joe Tanner, Rodney Justo, David Hidalgo, Fred Carter, Jr., Grady Martin, Hank Garland, Harold Bradley, J.R. Cobb, James Burton, Jerry Kennedy, Mac McAnally, Ray Edenton, Reggie Young , Robert Byrne, Scotty Moore, T Bone Burnett, Tippy Armstrong, Velma Smith, Wayne Moss, Billy Sanford, Bill Hinds, Bobby Goldsboro, John Rainey Adkins, Boudleaux Bryant (guitars); Mike Campbell (acoustic guitar, mandolin); Tom Petty (acoustic guitar, background vocals); George Harrison (acoustic guitar); Terry McMillan, Charlie McCoy (harmonica); Clarence Clemons, Jim Horn, Harvey Thompson, Ronnie Eades, Boots Randolph (saxophone); Alan Mayes, Colin First (trumpet); Gordon Balmouth, Larry Knechtal, Floyd Cramer, Glen D. Hardin, Jimmy Smith , Marvin Hughes, Barry Booth, Bill Pursell (piano); Tom Waits (organ); Booker T. Jones (Hammond b-3 organ); David Briggs (keyboards, synthesizer); Bill Dees (keyboards, background vocals); Clayton Ivey, Michael Utley, Mike Utley, Shane Keister, Bobby Emmons, Bobby Wood, Bobby Woods, Jim "Turbo" Kirby (keyboards); Roger Clark (synthesizer, drums, electronic drums); Charles Evans, Jack Kennelly, Terry Widlake, Sid Manker, Dennis Belfield, Howie Epstein, Jerry Scheff, Jim Johnson , Larry Paxton, Lonnie "Butch" Ledford, Mike Leech, Stan Kesler, T-Bone Wolk, Tommy Cogbill, Bob Wray, James "Hutch" Hutchinson, Bob Moore (bass instrument); Buell Neidlinger (upright bass); Phil Jones, Ian Wallace (drums, percussion); John W. Greubel, Bob Munday, Billy Pat Ellis, Jeff Porcard, Otis Jett, Dewey Martin, Gene Chrisman, J.M. Van Eaton, Jerry Arnold, Jim Keltner, Kenneth A. Buttrey, Michael Joyce, Ricky Fataar, Robert Nix, Ronnie Tutt, Ray Cooper , Paul Leim, Jerry Carrigan, Bob Mummert, Paul Garrison, Buddy Harman (drums); Terry Elam, Lenny Castro, Alex Acu�a, Mickey Buckins, Tom Roady, Farrell Morris (percussion); Thomas Brannon, Laverna Moore, Gwen Kay, Willie Greene, Wayne Murray, Dennis Linde, Francine Reed, Ginger Holladay, Jackson Browne, Janie Fricke, Jennifer Warnes, Andrew Gold, Steven Soles, Tom Smith, Bergen White, The Cherry Sisters, Bonnie Raitt, Buzz Cason, Everett Drake (background vocals); The Bob Moore Orchestra, Barry Booth Orchestra. This lavish, four-disc box set is undoubtedly the definitive summation of the career of Roy Orbison, rock & roll's great drama king. Behind those dark glasses and cool veneer lurked a man with an operatic voice and a rockabilly heart, and this set expertly guides you through every phase of his discography. The first disc features Orbison the Sun Records rock-&-roll cat, turning out rollicking rockabilly gems like "Ooby Dooby," and there are a number of mouth-watering demo recordings from this period featured as well. Disc Two really begins to get into the meat of the Orbison discography. Tracks like "Only the Lonely," "Running Scared," and "In Dreams" are lush, otherworldly pop operas where Orbison's unearthly tenor soars above clouds of strings to cry out, sometimes in longing, sometimes in terror. These immortal tracks pierce the listener to the soul, and by the final disc in the set, Orbison is surrounded by younger artists who grew up on those tunes, like k.d. lang, who joins him in a tear-jerking remake of "Crying." If you want the full Orbison experience, you'd be hard-pressed to do better than this box. In 1988, Columbia Records released a four-disc Roy Orbison retrospective called The Legendary Roy Orbison. It contained 74 tracks. It was a great package except for one thing: it sounded terrible, as the mastering techniques in the first days of the CD were not what they are now. The Soul of Rock and Roll, issued by Sony Legacy in 2008, is an enormous improvement in the sonic arena, just for starters. This four-disc collection contains 107 tracks (33 more than the previous box) with selections from all the labels Orbison recorded for. There are 12 previously unreleased performances, including the last tune Orbison ever committed to tape (strangely, a live version of "It's Over," recorded a scant two days before his death in Akron, OH). It contains a very solid book with essays by his widow Barbara, producer Fred Foster, and Roy Jr., and numerous testimonials from fans and friends including Tom Waits, Glenn Danzig Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Melson, Barry and Robin Gibb, and John Mellencamp, among others. Because of his unique place in rock history, Orbison has long been worthy of this type of definitive career retrospective, one taking into account the creative and popular renaissance he enjoyed at the end of his life as a solo artist and as a member of the Traveling Wilburys. Orbison never quit working, even during the obscure 1970s when he briefly went back to Monument; cut an album for Elektra; and recorded the spotty Class of '55 with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis for Mercury. A great collection of the earliest years with the Teen Kings is here, as are the important Sun and Monument singles, carefully chosen album tracks, selections from the films Zabriskie Point and The Fastest Guitar Alive, and even "That Lovin' You Feelin' Again," a duet with Emmylou Harris from the film Roadie. There are some stellar live performances from Barbara Orbison's enormous archive, including an unreleased monster rave-up of Chris Kenner's "Land of 1000 Dances." Disc four contains material from the posthumously released discs Mystery Girl and the better tracks from King of Hearts. The Wilburys are represented by "Not Alone Anymore" and the hit "You Got It," written by Orbison, Jeff Lynne, and Tom Petty. Soundtracks also figure: "In Dreams" from the Blue Velvet soundtrack; the hauntingly strange "You May Feel Me Crying" from Wim Wenders' film The End of Violence, which was overdubbed by Brian Eno in 1997; the Will Jennings and David Briggs-produced single "Wild Hearts (Run Out of Time)" from the soundtrack of the film Insignificance; and the Rick Rubin-produced "Life Fades Away" from the Less Than Zero soundtrack. "Crying," Orbison's now legendary duet with k.d. lang from Black & White Night, is also included. The most memorable thing here, however, is the unreleased demo of "Precious," recorded in either 1968 or 1969. It's just The Voice with his guitar. It's chilling. The only track really missing is "Southbound Jericho Parkway," from 1969, Orbison's singular moment of psychobilly and his seven-minute, darker-than-midnight answer to "MacArthur Park." This box is the first true compendium of popular and obscure Orbison resources. Bear Family's expensive seven-disc Orbison is an exhaustive collection documenting 1955-1965, but that's only part of the story. The major bits of the early years are here, and are lent weight and depth by the '70s and '80s recordings, making this one the compilation to beat. ~ Thom Jurek

Rolling Stone (p.75) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "Roy Orbison was a superhero of song....He became someone extraordinary when his weeping tenor took flight....This is the only anthology that does justice to every stage of Orbison's career..." Spin (p.114) - "[H]is idiosyncratic songwriting drew from disparate genres, opening new vistas for early rock'n'roll." Dirty Linen (p.60) - "[T]his four-CD compilation will finally help you trace his development as one of rock 'n' roll's most soulful and preeminent singers from his early beginnings doing country rockabilly in the mid-1950s to the late 1980s..." Blender (Magazine) (p.84) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[Orbison was] a pioneer of jaw-dropping rock balladry that set his eerie tenor into woozy orchestral dramas that seem to have presaged the entire corpus of David Lynch." Record Collector (magazine) (p.91) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "THE SOUL OF ROCK'N'ROLL might well be the nearest pop music ever gets to producing a Bible."

Roy Orbison, a seminal rock & roll singer who initially recorded for the legendary Sun Records, created some of the most enduring hits of the 1950s and '60s. His near-operatic voice and dark, broken-hearted songs influenced a generation of artists. His songs and arrangements, almost symphonic in scope, set the template for pop sophistication in the early-to-mid-'60s. After a late-'80s comeback that included collaborations with Bono and Elvis Costello and a stint with the rock super-group the Travelling Wilburys, Orbison died of a heart attack in 1988.

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